Backpack's ER Visit

Backpack and Trouble were playing 'Train'. Backpack was sitting on a blanket and Trouble pulled the blanket out from him, thinking Backpack was holding on. Backpack went forward and split his chin on the tile floor. Travis was still at church. He rushed home and took Backpack to the ER.
Luckily they used Dermabond and glued his chin back together! So much easier and cleaner than stitches!
At first his chin was bruised and had a huge scab. The bruising has cleared up and the scab has fallen off. It looks like the scarring will be minimal :-)
This was backpacks 2nd trip to the ER. Our first in California! I'm just glad it wasn't anything worse!!
**Sorry, no pictures!!**

Backpack potty trained!

On July 19th, Trouble and Aussie weren't feeling well so we opted to not venture out that day. I looked at Backpack and told him to take off his diaper because we are going to potty train!

The secret is to tell them months in advance that at this certain time (for us, when you turn 3) you can no longer wear diapers. (worked for Dynomite!) Then periodically have them go on the potty before that. In Ohio, Dynomite was trying to train him for pretend. Apparently that helped!

Luckily Backpack is highly motivated by candy. He will do anything to pop a sugary morsel into his mouth. Wednesday we headed to Wal-mart to buy candy and a prize. Then I made a potty chart on the unused fish tank with window markers.

1 candy if I took him to the potty
2 candies if he told me he had to go pee (and his underware was dry)
3 candies for going poop.

He progressed quickly. He held it in Wal-mart and when went pee in the toilet there. I think its a big step when they can go in unfamiliar places.

These pictures are from Friday, July 22nd. He completed his chart and got his prize. We've had a few accidents, mostly from not making it to the potty in time or he was too busy playing and forgot he wasn't wearing a diaper. We had one rough day after I put on the new kid friendly toilet seat and retired the potty chair (I really despise the potty chair!!!). Finally it came out that he didn't like sitting on the toilet. When I brought the chair back out, he was fine. At least the other kids like the new toilet seat.
Must always wash hands! Great way to teach the kids the alphabet!
Finishing up the potty chart!
His prize!
Backpack turns 3 on August 22nd!

Backpack Cuteness

These pictures just make us snicker! Enjoy!

And HE WALKS!!

Backpack took his first steps today!!! Not for the camera, of course. He walked three separate times for a few, quite stable, steps. Hurray! We'll post a video soon...

Backpack Battles Blades

Thanks to Cynthia for the clever title!

Last Wednesday I was cutting fleece fringe for a pillow with my heavy duty spring loaded scissors. I was on the floor cutting when Dynomite reached for the scissors. Since she does okay with scissors I let her use them while I tied the pillow. As she was cutting Backpack reached for them as she cut down and cut his thumb. I didn't realize how bad until I washed the blood from his hand. I felt slightly panicked and couldn't reach Travis on his cell. So I wrapped his thumb up, grabbed a bottle of PediaSure to keep him soothed and headed over the Cynthia's. She did agree that I should take him into the ER. I figured she was my voice of reason. So I left her with the other two and drove to Dayton's Children's Hospital. I was only a block or so from our house when I saw Travis and flagged him down. So he went with.



We were only in the ER for 1.5hours. The doctor put in three little stitches and he lost part of his nail. But we had stitches out yesterday and everything looks okay now!

Just this last week, Backpack has tried crawling out the back door which resulting in him scratching up his eye brown on the cement. Then I was in the garage and he was in the house. He had crawled over and pulled himself to standing with his hands resting on the door. I didn't not know this, so when I opened the door (which swings into the garage) he fell flat on his face on the cement. Blood everywhere! I had it! I burst into tears and let Travis handle it. Luckily he only got a fat lip. He hit so hard, it makes me shudder just thinking about it.

Luckily kids come hardy!

Thank you Laura for the picture!!

Backpack, the stairmaster!

The other day I was upstairs and suddenly hear, "How did you get up there?" from Trouble, then some giggling from Backpack. I look down the stairs to find Backpack slowly climbing his way up! Backpack has been successfully crawling for about a week. We've never prohibited our kids from the stairs. In fact Trouble could climb up before he could crawl. So he'd get to the top of the stairs and cry for someone to get him because he couldn't go anywhere!

Anyway, I yelled for Travis to get the camera and we filmed his first ascent. Now I really have to watch him because stairs have become his favorite past time, besides following me around!

Backpack Update!

Our little guy is now 7 months. Yesterday he cut his two upper front teeth (for a total of 4 teeth). They just sat there bleeding and waiting to break through. He hasn't been too fussy either. A real trooper! He is sitting all by himself and clapping. He is all smiles and giggles. Backpack is definitely the best smiler of the bunch, but when he is upset he is the loudest. He never just cries or whimpers, its an all out scream!

Today he actually reached out for something I had and made a 'I want it/gimme' gesture. At church I was talking and he grabbed my face and turned it toward him. He cries if I hold one of the other kids or I walk out of the room. He's been known to kick if Trouble or Dynomite come near while I'm holding him. I love it! I wanted a Mommy's baby. The other two, I think, love Daddy more...this one is mine!!! The only problem is that he never lets me put him down. Oh well!! (I did confuse Trouble because I kept saying, "This is Mommy's baby". So Trouble asked Travis, "Daddy, when are you going to have a baby?")


He's also our best eater. He quickly eats meals with us in his Bumbo on the table without a fight (plus snacks and nursing). He even enjoys eating by clapping or smiling after most bites. Trouble had to be coaxed with a Cheerio on top of every spoonful and Dynomite is still very slow.

This is the age when they start to become really fun. Travis likes to throw the babies up in the air and rough them up a bit just to get the smiles. They also get ticklish.

I will post pictures later!!

Backpack Eats

We've started Backpack on solids a few weeks ago. He loves it! We stared him on veggies and just recently started giving him fruits. We mix the solids with oatmeal cereal. He eats about 5oz. a night plus ceral for breakfast. The best part is that he's been sleeping 7-10 hours at night.

Threes company

We woke up the other morning to Backpack screaming. What's wrong little baby? Unwanted company?

Backpack 6 weeks

I lied and said that I'd stay on top of blogging. The house is back in order now and we are working on some kind of routine in our day. But I have to say that 3 kids is taxing. I can see why people stop at three!! We've forgotten how fussy and demanding babies can be. Ali had blogged about her son not liking being a baby, we think that is how Backpack is. He sees the other kiddos playing and his legs start kicking and his arm flail around. He's eager to go!! But Trouble and Dynomite have been very good with him. A pleasant surprise for us.

Backpack's six week pictures:

With Big Sister:
The boys making goofy faces:

Backpack and Raina

Here is backpack with Pat and Kelly's little girl, Raina. They are already play buddies!

Backpack Arrives

I just knew we were going to have the baby this weekend! I was suppose to see Dr. Billings at 10:22am on Friday, Aug. 22nd (I was 37 weeks on Sunday, Aug. 17th). And if this pregnancy was anything like the other two, then I was going to give birth within 24 hours of seeing the doctor on the 37th week of pregnancy. The reason I made my appointment so late in the week was to see if, in fact, it was the doctor who induced my labor by just checking me. So all week I stayed busy deep cleaning the house, getting all the baby stuff ready, doing all the laundry, washing sheets, making guest beds, packing the hospital bag, tying up loose ends, cleaning the animal cages all so when I got home from the hospital I could relax. Thursday rolled around and I woke up feeling okay, but more miserable as the day wore on. I did some more cleaning but relaxed while the kids napped. About 6:30pm Travis called because a storm was moving in and he needed the hole he cut in the bathroom roof to be covered up and his tools, siding, and shingles to be moved into the house. So I did that, got the kids dinner and went to a Girl Scout meeting. At the meeting I was feeling a little miserable and had a few slight contractions. After the meeting it struck me that I might actually have this baby tonight. Well I wanted to finish cleaning the house so the kids and I went to Wal-mart to get vacuum bags. We got home and I laid them down for the night (I was really grumpy now with the uncomfortable but slight contractions). I finished the cleaning the house. Travis called from work about 10:00pm and said that he might have to stay a few more hours at work, or he could come home. I told him he'd better come home. He got home at 10:30pm and timed my contractions while we watched volleyball, which were 5 mins apart, 1 min long. 11:30ish we called the hospital to let them know we were coming in, then called our good friend Elizabeth to come stay the night with the kids. She came right away and we got the hospital about midnight. I told the nurse to check me and send me home because I suddenly remembered that I was about to lose the ability to have full nights sleep for the next 2-3months and I wanted one more night of good sleep. HA HA! She made me de robe, put on the monitors and get into bed before she even checked me. I was between 4 and 5 centimeters dilated. Typical for me, as in I start real labor at 5 centimeters. We asked them to call Dr. Billings in so he could break my waters. They said they'd call him when I was almost ready to go. NO, I protested, my waters don't break on their own, call him in. Luckily, he was called in for someone else and when he finished with her he came to check me and broke my waters. That was about 2:30am and I was 7 centimeters dilated. Then I refused an IV and got a lecture from the Dr. and the nurse about the dangers of that...blah, blah, blah...I just wanted this thing out of me!! I just wanted to get this over with!! Then at 3pm I was in hard labor, contractions one on top of the other with just seconds in between and I thought I was going to die and Travis thought he was going to die...I only bit him once :-) Anyway, shortly before 4am I had a healthy baby boy! And all I kept saying was, "I'm glad this is over!!" Honestly, I love being pregnant, I love having the new baby and all that goes with it, but I dread labor (um, maybe I'll get an epidural with the next one...of course that is what I said when I had Dynomite).

Baby boy Backpack

22 Aug 08

6 lbs. 0 oz.

19.5 inches

My last belly picture. I took this knowing it would be my last. We have been taking these everyday throughout the pregnancy so Travis could put together a still photo movie showing the growth of the belly.

A happy family. Taken right after they got Backpack all cleaned up.

The kiddos with me. This was Friday afternoon (and after a shower!!).I even had the clothes laid out that I wanted them to wear to the hospital when they came to see me. Travis' shirt from Father's Day. And for the kids I stole the idea from Jerusha to have them put their hand prints on a shirt for when they came to visit the new baby.Dynomite was so adamant about holding the new baby. She's going to be a good helper for mommy.And this is the goofy picture they took at the hospital. But you can see all his blond hair and blue eyes.

Anyway, Travis was home by 6:30am get let Elizabeth go home. The kids had no idea, they weren't even up when he got home. And I got home Sunday afternoon. Backpack slept well last night. All I've got to do all day is sit and hold my new little baby. The kids played great and let me nap this morning while Travis had an eye appointment on base and got my pain meds. He took the kids to the splash pad this afternoon. I can already tell that this is going to be a much faster recovery. We're just going to take it easy and lounge around in our pjs all week. Thank you everyone for the support, phone calls, and visits!

Welcome to the world little guy!